French 16th seed Gael Monfils was called upon to add some star power to Monday’s last US Open match at Louis Armstrong Stadium after Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament.
Russian third seed Sharapova pulled out on the eve of the year’s final Grand Slam tournament on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts due to a right leg injury. She had not played since losing to top-ranked Serena Williams in a Wimbledon semi-final.
With Sharapova pulling out, it left her replacement, Russian Daria Kasatkina, to face Australian Daria Gavrilova in what had been planned as the last match on the Armstrong court.
Instead, tournament officials switched out that match to court 11, replacing it with the last match that had been scheduled there, flamboyant Frenchman Monfils against Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko.
Schedule of main-court matches Monday at the US Open tennis championships (x denotes seed, all times local, 4 hours off GMT):
Arthur Ashe Stadium (11 a.m., 1500 GMT)
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) v Ana Ivanovic (SRB x7)
Monica Puig (PUR) v Venus Williams (USA x23)
Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) v Joao Souza (BRA)
(7 p.m., 2300 GMT)
Serena Williams (USA x1) v Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS)
Brona Coric (CRO) v Rafael Nadal (ESP x8)
Louis Armstrong Stadium (11 a.m., 1500 GMT)
Kei Nishikori (JPN x4) v Benoit Paire (FRA)
Marin Cilic (CRO x9) v Guido Pella (ARG)
CoCo Vandeweghe (USA) v Sloane Stephens (USA x29)
(Not before 5 p.m., 2100 GMT)
Illya Marchenko (UKR) v Gael Monfils (FRA x16)
Grandstand (11 a.m., 1500 GMT)
Marco Cecchinato (ITA) v Mardy Fish (USA)
Anna Tatishvili (USA) v Karolina Pliskova (CZE x8)
Radu Albot (MDA) v David Ferrer (ESP x7)
Madison Keys (USA x19) v Klara Koukalova (CZE)
– Agence France-Presse
